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WINNER: Home Theater

My girlfriend's uncles, Andrew (Drew) Souders & Mark Ridge, built an amazing theater in the attic of their home in Chicago, IL. After working for years in the movie business doing extras casting, Mark had always dreamed of having a theater in their house. So, Drew made it a reality. The theater is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. After climbing a very narrow staircase all of a sudden you are transported back in time. The theater has an amazing feel from the moment you enter the lobby. It is fully equipped with a popcorn machine, lounge, and snack bar. The detail and comfort of the theater itself is absolutely amazing. Drew did most of the work himself painstakingly measuring, cutting, sanding, painting every piece added to the theater after the general contractor had left. They also incorporated Mark's many collectibles ranging from posters, memorabilia & figurines into the decor. Canon 5D Mark III. ISO 100, 30 second exposure, f/22
-Michael Durr

Faux Tilt Shift

Instead of photographing something completely new, I thought of trying out a new photography effect. I don't own a Tilt-Shift Lens, but I love the "toy-like" result, and ended up using photoshop to achieve my effect. A faux tilt-shift. Trying to make it "Tilt-Shift" in photoshop was new to me anyway. I created a mask and applied a gradient over it. Then with the Lens Blur Filter I tweaked around with the different levels until I was happy with it. I went to Coit Tower for this, because I thought the views would be amazing, and potential for the effect I needed. I paid the full $7.00 admission and waited in line for 45 minutes behind and in front of tourists that did not speak English. It was a little awkward. I think I was the only native San Franciscan in line. Original photography settings are f7.1, ISO 200, 1/800 Shutter with a 52 mm lens.
- Stacy Repin

From Above

I was on a flight from LA to Vancouver and was looking out for some nice shots of the clouds when I saw the shadow of the plane flying along the ground. When we hit some of the low-lying clouds, this crazy rainbow ring appeared.

We were above north-western Washington at the time just before we started our descent into Vancouver. The scene got better as we got closer and closer to the clouds but by then, I was taking video. It's shot this with an iPhone 4S (ISO 64, 4mm, f/2.4, 1/1783).
-Steve Jin

Fire Dancer

Well, my wife and I decided while we were in Hawaii for our honeymoon to take in the local culture. We met with some native Hawaiians who suggested this particular luau. We were pleasantly surprised at how well done it was, especially the food (well, the Poi was...interesting to say the least). This particular performer was spectacular, and was very into the presentation from start to finish. He stole the show, and we were able to bring home some great memories thanks to his grand performance. Canon EOS REBEL T3, f/2.5, 1/80, ISO 400
- Jason Elias

The Mirror

We went out to watch the sunset with my new GF and I wanted to take some photos of her with the sunset. Even though I tried everything to convince her, she didn't let me to do so. So I decided to sneak behind the car, and take her photo from the side mirror. So after a few tries I got this one. Maybe it is the tiny little smile she had on her face when she realized I was taking her photos, or maybe the outstanding bokeh but there was something special with this one. It is my first time trying to take someone's photos from a mirror. And hey, she loved it. Photo was taken with Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 50mm f / 1.4 prime lens with 1/100 shutter speed and ISO 50 at f / 1.4.
- Baran Ersan

Istanbul

I am sitting at the Asia side of Istanbul, so I decided to take a trip to European side and take some photos, I finished my trip with some historical mosques and museums, however I decided to use ferry for coming back to Asian side, I saw the beautiful scene that I pictured but I was not able to take shot without interfering people or ferry into picture, so I walk quietly without alerting the guards to restricted zone I took some frames and police showed said that I can't be here, and I walked back to my ferry after that. Camera : Nikon D90, Shutter Speed : 1/50 seconds, Aperture : F/5.0, Focal Length : 75 mm, ISO : 320, Lens : 18-200 mm Nikkor
- Muhammed Furkan Akinci

Chinese Lanterns

This weekend, I went to see my Dad's new house, for the first time. In his backyard, I spotted a beautiful, illuminated Chinese Lantern plant. Naturally, I got down on my stomach like a worm. Those worms have a pretty cool view. I felt like I was in a magical fairyland.
- Allison Brown

Sidewalk Tangent

This is totally different. I set out to do a close-in shot of the sidewalk, but the editing process brought me to this. I can't even begin describe the process other than it is HDR.
- Jeffery Phillips

Rock Party

I shot this with my Canon Rebel XTi and my new nifty fifty lens. This is the first time I did any photography with my new lens. It is ISO100 f/1.8 and 1/3200. I also recently moved to Italy and I travelled to an area I had never been in Tuscany. I took this picture of a friend's daughter as she threw gravel into a fountain (probably not good for the fountain- but great for the photo). I also decided in the spirit of doing something new to do no post-processing.
- Sally Maddocks

Point Pelee National Park

Born and raised in Ontario and in 50+ years had never travelled to this park.
I love looking at pictures where people have caught reflections, so that's why I snapped this pic while walking along the wooden pathway through the marsh. The area is so pretty, I want to get back when the bird migrations are happening. The migrations are what make this park famous. Nikon Coolpix S9100, using auto Location: Point Pelee National Park, Ontario Canada
- Susan Uzupis

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

I never go to military review. But this sunday with my friend Jé, we arrived by chance just at the moment of the ceremony at the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. What you can see in this picture is the back of the trumpet player while he was waiting for the ceremony to begin. D7000, Micro Nikor 60mm, 1/160, f/4.5, 640 ISO
- Sébastien Bonaimé

New Photog

I'm new to photography so pretty much everything I do is fresh and straight out of the box. I got this camera as a graduation gift and bought the telephoto zoom lens a few days ago as a treat for myself not knowing what to expect. I wandered over to the park and started taking pictures of everything — ducks, turtles, trees, etc. I found this guy about five minutes before calling it quits, switched to macro mode, and managed to snap a few before it took off. I'm very pleased with this. Nikon D5100, Sigma 30-700mm lens
300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640
- Jared Truettner

Golden Gate Field Photo Day

Signed up for Golden Gate Field's Photo Day. We got access to the morning work outs, as well as behind the scene access to the Clubhouse Turn, the Three-Quarters Pole, and one of the barns. Being a horse racing novice, it was quite interesting to see. In addition, this was my first real outing with my new camera. D7000 55-200 1/50 f/8.
- Andy Holton

U-Bahn Bridge

I took this challenge as an opportunity to explore night motion photography, something that is new for me. I had a spot in mind in scharnhauser park, which is a german community near stuttgart dedicated to modern architecture. This is an U-Bahn bridge, modern design of course, lit in blue by a floodlight, with a yellow U-Bahn train crossing it, and a car passing on the road underneath. Had to manual focus because the camera couldn't figure out what object to focus on. Also wanted both the train and cars in the same exposure. The trains come by on average about every 10 minutes. Took several attempts to get it right. Canon EOS 7D, f/9
30 sec exposure, ISO-200, 11mm focal length using 10-24mm Tamron wide angle zoom
- Kent Waller

Sugar Cane Sip

It's been a while since I've done anything stupid or reckless for the sake of getting the shot, this is the most recent one.

During a trip to our family's farm in Negros, I spotted these canals used to irrigate the sugar canes and wondered how interesting it was to photograph it...Little did I know that there was a smaller canal running perpendicular to it and I nearly fell in. New lesson learned: Look where you're standing before you shoot. Shot by a Nikon D70 with an 18-70mm f3.5 lens
-Gabriel Lizares

Thanks to all of you who took this challenge to heart and really went outside your day to day lives for a shot—I really think there's something to gain by kicking yourself in the butt and searching out that fresh perspective. Find the big photos on flickr.